Issue 042
October 2008
WEC 35: Las Vegas, Nevada, 3 August 2008
The latest in the seemingly never-ending streak of superbly entertaining WEC events was highlighted by three electrifying title fights. WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner stopped previously unbeaten powerhouse Marcus Hicks in one of the most entertaining short fights its possible to have. Varner has real talent and took this belt in February by dismantling the heavily favoured Rob McCullough earlier this year. But few were talking about Varner the day after his first title defence. Instead, it was the way unbelievably tough, stubborn Hicks (who seemed to have Varner in trouble with some hefty slams and a tight guillotine choke) took more than 40 unanswered punches and knees to the face before finally falling to the mat.
Former soldier and defending WEC light heavyweight champion Brian Stann is far removed from the top of the 205lbdivision. A stiff, upright (but heavy-handed striker) Stann was 6-0 going into his fight with the equally inexperienced Steve Cantwell. Stann and Cantwell had met 15 months earlier and Stann hammered the Las Vegas native to defeat in just 41 seconds. Since then, the 21-year-old Cantwell had rebounded with a pair of impressive TKO victories. This time Cantwell proved to be the better, more technical striker, punishing the plodding Stann with a variety of kicks and punches and forcing him into the second round for the first time in his career. Stann wouldn’t see the third as Cantwell began picking him apart before emphatically finishing things with a knee to the face and a barrage of punches 4:01 into the second round of a hugely entertaining fight that saw a new champion crowned in the dangerous, young and ambitious Cantwell.
Carlos Condit retained his WEC welterweight crown against ‘The Last Samurai’ Hiromitsu Miura in one of the very best fights of the year. Miura displayed some beautiful judo throws in the first but had to survive a slick armbar and the odd punch to the face. It was all Condit in the second as he attacked relentlessly on the mat. There was more of the same from a seemingly tireless Condit in an epic third round – both landed punches and worked quickly and effortlessly on the mat in a session which ended as Miura looked to be in real trouble due to a Condit choke. The fourth was even better as both had tired quickly and threw caution out of the window while throwing everything they had at their opponents. Miura seemed to have Condit in trouble with punches on the ground but the champion from Albuquerque rallied and finished his desperately tired opponent off late in the fourth round after landing some 30 punches. Much like fellow WEC champions Miguel Torres and Urijah Faber, the 24-year-old Condit is beginning to look like one of the sport’s genuine superstars in the making. Meanwhile, Miura won himself plenty of American admirers with this performance.
